Lao Shu’s Indian Summer

The Other China

輕搖一扇，驅散秋老虎

 

Lao Shu 老樹 is the nom de plume of Liu Shuyong (劉樹勇, 1962-), a Beijing-based artist, writer, critic and professor in communications. His artistic voice is unique and personal, its tenor, whimsy and profundity evoke what for decades we have called The Other China — a cultural noosphere that is as undeniably local as it is universal.

For more work by Lao Shu in China Heritage, see The Other China and Intersecting with Eternity. For his latest art work (and merch), see Lao Shu Paintings 老樹畫畫 online at NetEase 網易.

***

In this, the latest addition to a China Heritage series on the northern summer of 2026, we join Lao Shu as he contemplates ‘The Autumn Tiger’ 秋老虎, that is, an Indian Summer. (Although early autumn in Beijing was warm, by the end of August the media reported that fears of a continuation of the summer heat were little more than a ‘paper tiger’ 紙老虎.

Fittingly enough, the Chinese rubric of this chapter in our miniseries ‘Lao Shu’s Summer 2026’ is 輕搖一扇，驅散秋老虎 — ‘With a fan and a simple flick of the wrist, the Autumn Tiger can be sent packing’. It is taken from the first painting in this selection, one that features a series of fan-leaf art works 扇面, that is paintings, poems and calligraphy traditionally made by littérateurs for hand-held fans which were given to friends and family.

— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
29 August 2026

***

Chapters in Lao Shu’s Summer 2026

輕搖一扇，驅散秋老虎

With a fan and a simple flick of the wrist,
the Autumn Tiger can be sent packing

paintings & poems by Lao Shu 老樹

translated and annotated by Geremie R. Barmé

 

***

A Heart Like Ice in a Jade Cup

一片冰心在玉壺

 

水邊幾枝薄荷，竹下一寸冰心。
但與草木為伍，不願和人相親。

A few sprigs of water mint by a lake,
a pellucid heart amidst bamboo.
Seek rather the fellowship of plants
than share oneself with other people.

Note: The expression 一寸冰心 draws on the line 一片冰心在玉壺 ‘a heart as pure as ice in a jade cup’, composed by the Tang-dynasty poet Wang Changling 王昌齡. It can be taken to mean that one’s heart-mind is unsullied or unchanged. Indeed, Lao Shu’s sentiments chime with those of Wang’s poem:

《芙蓉樓送辛漸》

寒雨連江夜入吳，平明送客楚山孤。
洛陽親友如相問，一片冰心在玉壺。

Translated by Stephen Owen as:

A cold rain mingled with the river invades the Wu at night;
At dawn I see you off, the Chu hills stand alone.
If my kin and friends in Luoyang should ask about me:
An ice-pure heart inside a jade pot.

***

 

事情總是不少，裝作從來悠閒。
聽風看書吃茶，任憑別人數錢。

丙申仲夏時，老樹

There’s always lots of stuff to do,
though you pretend that it’s a breeze.
Listen then to the wind, read, take tea,
let others worry about counting pennies.

— Lao Shu, the height of summer in the Bingshen Year of the Monkey [2016]

***

After taking a trip into the hills
my skiff returns laden with flowers.
A heart brimming with delight,
makes me think of you.

— Lao Shu, spring, the Dingchou Year of the Rooster [2017]

***

 

身邊無數花開，錯過真是不少。
扳著手指算算，平添幾分煩惱。

老樹

Blossoms may be all around me,
though there’s many I have missed.
Counting them off on my fingers
adds to my feeling of irritation.

— Lao Shu

***

 

了卻有限生涯，所求還能有啥？
一枝兩片綠葉，三杯兩盞淡茶。

老樹

When the end of life is approaches
what more can you really want?
A few green leaves on a branch
and a cup or two of mild tea.

— Lao Shu

Note: ‘Mild tea’ 淡茶 dàn chá. In ‘A Chinese Critical Vocabulary’, Lin Yutang describes the term 淡茶 dàn in the following way:

‘mild, pale in colour, as of a misty lake. Probably the quality in a painting or writing that gives the greatest pleasure to a man of mature taste is qingdan 清淡 (lucid and mild), pingdan 平淡 (“even and mild,” the natural aroma of simple writing), or danyuan 淡遠 (mild-toned and “distant” in perspective, either in painting or in style of thought). A man of a retiring mild temperament is tiandan 恬淡 (quiet and easily contented, or loving simple joys); he adopts an attitude toward money and fame described as danbo 淡泊 (mild and thin).’

— see Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living, 1938, p.456

***

 

如花總嫌招搖，且做一棵水草。
平平靜靜活過，然後隨水走了。

— 老樹

Perhaps blossoms seem too louche,
so let us consider instead water plants.
Their lives pass by unobtrusively and,
in the end, they simply float away.

— Lao Shu

***

 

作為一顆大胖子，一個夏天真難熬。
水中葫蘆也不瘦，可是過得挺逍遙。

— 老樹

For the corpulent characters you come across,
the summer months really are quite challenging.
Even though water hyacinths are hardly svelte,
there’s no doubt that they are far more carefree.

— Lao Shu

***

Sources:

***